CAT | ‘GRACE WAVES’

satan rules the world’s system within which we live (Jn 14:40) He utilises lies and deceptions to mould the characters of people, to steal their peace and joy and keep them in bondage!

He knows how to play on people’s weaknesses and push the right buttons, in order to create: Competitiveness (Mt 20:20-24) Peer pressure (Gal 2:11-13) Pride (Mt 25:33) Covetousness ( Mt 19:21-22) Our reputation (Gal 2:6), and comparing ourselves with others (2 Cor 19:12).

These ways prevent the real us from coming forth! They mask our true identity!

The Greeks had a word for this. They called it ‘Hypocrite’! A hypocrite was an actor who covered his/her face with a mask when playing various roles.

When Jesus told His disciples in Gethsemane that they would all deny Him and be scattered, Peter boldly replied, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.” (Mt 26:33)

Peter proclaimed twice with vehemence that he would not deny Jesus and if it came to it would die with Him! (Mt 26:34-35)

We all know the outcome of the story! When the pressure came on Peter, he capitulated and swore he didn’t even know Jesus!

This was hypocritical behaviour of the worst kind! But who of us at times have not done or said similar things!

So often, we know we are being a hypocrite but feel powerless to change the masks! We are like a chameleon continually changing colour to blend in with our surroundings!

Only the grace of the Lord Jesus can bring inner change that sets us free to be our real selves, so that no matter the peer group or circumstances, people see the unique us!

The key Greek thought of the word grace is: The divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life! This divine influence is the life of Jesus within.

As we feed upon (meditate) Him in His word, we will experience the masks dropping away and our behaviour being influenced by His life. A life that exalts and brings honour to His name!

Then the new YOU, the real YOU, will come forth in strength, power and beauty!

Meditation Point: Only the life of Jesus (the living word) within is powerful enough to change the life of the flesh and replace it with the life of the Spirit!

1) His Love Changes Us: Love does not judge, condemn, shame, accuse or reject! Love makes allowances for weaknesses and majors on strengths. This creates an atmosphere for change!

Even when Jesus addressed the issue of Peter’s betrayal at breakfast on the shores of Galilee, 3 times He made him admit that he only had phileo love (friendship love) not agape love (sacrificial, unchanging love) for Jesus.

But each time Peter confessed his weakness, Jesus said to him, ”Now go, feed my sheep”. He corrected Peter whilst at the same time telling him he wasn’t finished, he wasn’t washed up, there was still a work for him to do!

Prov 10:12 Love covers all sins!

2) His love Brings Security: When we know we are loved, it gives us the strength to overcome all obstacles and setbacks.

When Jesus rose up out of the waters of baptism, the Father couldn’t hold back any longer and in an audible voice He boomed across the thousands gathered there, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!”

The Father was affirming His Son at a strategic point in the beginning of the Son’s ministry, for Jesus would straight way go into the wilderness and fight His first major battle against satan.

It was knowing His Father loved Him that gave Him the strength, not only to face satan but defeat him!

Song of Songs 8:6 Love is invincible when facing danger and death!

3) HeLoves Us For Who We Are, Not For What We Can Do:

Only when we know we are loved unconditionally will we stop performing in order to get love and change to a receiving kind of love.

Under the Old Covenant, maturity of love was measured by how much man loved God.
Under the New Covenant, maturity of love is measured by how much man can receive the Father’s love!

1 Jn 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

4) His Love Accepts: When we know we are loved unconditionally, we will run to the Father not run from Him!

Manytimes, when a young child has done wrong, he/she will go running to their Father! Why! The child wants to know they are still accepted in the midst of their wrong doing! This knowledge in the child breeds security and stability!

Hence, the Father wants us to run to Him and worship Him. Then, when His tangible presence comes, it heals our hurts and wounds, and He becomes Daddy God to us!

Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved (Jesus).

5) His Love Removes Fear: Fear either immobilises a person, or makes them run away! Fear causes panic and destroys relationships. But knowing we are loved ejects all fear from our lives, enabling us to face upto and walk through difficult circumstances!

1 Jn 4:18 Perfect love casts out all fear.

Let us settle it in our hearts once and for all, we need never fear God ever again. Listen to His word: ‘For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound, well balanced, disciplined mind’! (2 Tim 1:7)

We finish with Paul the apostle’s words, proclaiming that the whole of his Christian life and ministry, is founded on the Father’s love for Him!

Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Meditation Point: Let us stop trying to prove our love for God. That is an Old Covenant concept! Instead let’s be New Covenant people and ask the Father to teach us how to receive His love! Put Him to the test! He will not fail you!

After committing adultery with Bathsheba, King David pleaded with God, “Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me!” (Ps 51:11)

But under the N.C. Of grace, God’s presence with His people is not dependant on their obedience but the obedience of Jesus!

Rom 5:19 For by one man’s disobedience (Adam) many were made sinners, so also by one man’s obedience (Jesus) many will be made righteous.

His obedience has made us righteous, perfect and holy in the Father’s sight, therefore the Father can legally send the Holy Spirit to live in and remain with us forever!

Jn 14:16 I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper, that He may abide with you forever!

Nothing that you or I can do, will ever make the Father withdraw His presence from us!

You are the eternal dwelling place of God! He will never leave you!

Heb 13:5 God Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not leave you helpless nor forsake you nor relax My hold on you! Assuredly not! (AMP)

You Are The Father’s Glory

When the first Adam fell into sin, he forfeited his right to the glory of God. Mankind inherited a glory-less life! Rom 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!

‘Ichabod’ = ‘The glory has departed’, was written over our lives!

But when the last Adam (Jesus Christ) sat down on His throne at the right hand of the Father, the glory was restored to mankind. We sit there with Him having been glorified with Him.

Jn 17:22 ”The glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one!” Rom 8:30 Those whom He justified, these He also glorified.

God’s design is to fill the earth with His glory through each individual.

Hab 2:4 The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord!

Today, see yourself as the glory of God! You are different from others for you are a glory carrier of God!

Just be yourself and the glory will shine through you!

Confession: Thank You Father that I am a glory carrier. You are shining out of me as I go about my daily business. I don’t have to try to let your glory shine, I just have to be myself.

Mt Sinai:Heb 12:18-21For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) (NKJV)

My Zion:Heb 12:22-24But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (NKJV)

Mt Sinai: (earthly Mt) was the place of the giving of the law of the Old Covenant. How did God choose to represent this event?

It was a mountain ablaze with fire, gloom and darkness and a raging storm. God forbade the people to even touch the mountain on pain of death!

In fact, so awful and terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am terrified, aghast and trembling with fear!” (Heb 12:21)

My Zion: (spiritual Mt) was the giving of the Holy Spirit of the New Covenant. How did God choose to represent this event?

It ISa mountain of innumerable angels, the ‘joyful ‘ gathering of God’s firstborn righteous people, (the Church) who’s names are written in heaven. The place of Jesus and His shed blood that cries out for mercy and forgiveness!

Scripture makes plain to believers that they have not come to Mt Sinai, rather they have come to Mt Zion. They have exchanged the judgement and fear of God for His righteousness and joy.

Which mountain are you worshipping at today? Do you see God as a God of judgement, austere and to be feared! Is He a distant God, intolerant of sin and ready to punish the smallest mistake!

If so, you may be a New Covenant believer, but still have the mindset of an Old Covenant believer and are worshipping the God of Mt Sinai!

Whereas, if we see God as a God of unconditional forgiveness and love, a God who never leaves us nor forsakes us, who totally accepts and receives us as a friend, a God we can worship with joy and abandonment – we know we are worshipping the God of Mt Zion!

But what does God think of all this. Which mountain has He chosen! Let’s leave the final word with Him:

Ps 132:13,14 For the Lord has chosen Zion; “This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell, for I have desired it! (NKJV)

Ps 87:2,3 The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God! (NKJV)

Meditation Point: God Himself through His word beckons me to come to Mt Zion to worship Him in righteousness and with joy!

When we preach a law gospel that highlights people’s sin we are ignorantly preaching a gospel that has within it the seeds of its own destruction!

Hos 4:6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (NKJV)

We have then become ‘blind leaders of the blind’ and fall into the ditch of bondage and defeat! (Mt 15:14)

When we preach the law, we imprison people in their sin. Why is this?: The law was given to judge and condemn sin but it cannot deliver from sin, it cannot give people the power to climb out of sin! Hence every time we preach law we further strengthen its hold over people. We have locked them up in their sin and thrown the key away.

Besides producing guilt and condemnation, knowing we cannot overcome sin leads to weakness, hopelessness and defeat. This is why many believers give up following Jesus. The standards are too high for them to maintain consistently on a daily basis!

Then why did God give the law? He gave it not only to point out my sin, but to exacerbate it to such a degree, that we might cry out, “Oh wretched man/woman that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24) (NKJV)

Rom 7:13But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. (NKJV)

This man/woman realises they cannot conquer sin by themselves and stand in need of a Saviour to set them free.

Who is that Saviour? They cry out again, “I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord!” (NKJV) (Rom 7:25)

Friends, you and I died to the law at the cross! (Rom 7:4) The law no longer has jurisdiction over our lives. We now live under the New Covenant grace of Jesus Christ!

It is the power of grace working within us that sets us free from the bondage of sin.

Gal 5:1Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke (law) of bondage. (NKJV)

Are you trapped in debilitating sin today — call on Jesus! He is the great deliverer!

Jn 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life.He who comes to me shall never hunger. (NKJV)

Christianity has sold us the lie that reading 5 or 10 chapters of the Bible everyday will somehow make us into men and women of God.

It’s not that there’s no benefit from reading in such a way, but we’ve completely missed the truth that the Bible is not a Western book – It’s a Middle-Eastern book!

In the West we tend to read – In the East they tend to meditate!

Gen 24:63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening. (NKJV)

Ps 63:6When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. (NKJV)

Ps 119:148My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word. (NKJV)

The word meditation in Hebrew means: Think, ponder, mutter, study, muse etc. This is why meditation became a lifestyle in the Hebrew culture.

The word of God only becomes bread to us as we meditate upon it. It’s meditation that releases the life that’s hidden inside the word. This is called ‘revelation knowledge’, and it’s this that feeds our spirit man, it’s this that transforms our life from the inside out, and it’s this that makes us come alive in the Spirit!

Prayer: Jesus, help me to meditate your word!

So, how can we meditate God’s word. Here are some pointers:

1)Meditation: Cannot be rushed. Instead of reading a chapter, take a single verse and spend 20 mins pouring over each word. Lingering over each word, turning it over in our mind again and again. This is what it means to feed on Gods word.

On the Eve of the Passover, each family partook in killing a lamb, roasting it over the fire and eating its flesh.

Ex 12:8Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire. (NKJV)

They were feeding on the lamb! When we meditate God’s word we are feeding on THE lamb Jesus Christ, who is also the word of God. (Rev 19:13)

2) Meditation: Is two-fold – thinking and muttering. Practise verbalizing your thoughts. This releases the Holy Spirit to plumb the depths of your spirit and draw upon the deposit of God’s word that has been stored up within you.

You have a treasure trove within you!

3) Meditation: Sows God’s word into our spirit in seed form. The Holy Spirit broods over this seed till the day comes when it bursts forth out of our spirit with revelation knowledge.

God always releases faith together with revelation knowledge, empowering us to put His word into action.

In Rom 10:17 The word ‘WORD’ in Greek is Rhema. It means the spoken word of God. This is a word that God quickens to our spirit for a particular occasion. This kind of word comes with faith, enabling us to put it into action!

A Rhema word is revelation knowledge. It is Rhema that is released as we meditate God’s word!

Meditation Point: Meditation means to turn over God’s word in the mind again and again!